Most helpful customer reviews

Let me tell you up front, if you are looking for more of the Claybourne's in this book, you will not get it. The focus of "COMES THE SPRING" is capturing the Blackwater Gang. We start off with the bank robbery scene, and the identity of the witness is a mystery. Julie does a very good job in hiding who the witness is, until it is revealed.We finally get the story of Cole Claybourne, the most "rough" of the Claybourne brothers. Cole is made into a U.S. Marshal by Marshal Daniel Ryan, who supposedly stole his compass from Mama Rose. Little is known about the compass that causes Cole to search for Ryan, and this plot does not follow in the book.I thought Jessica and Grace were very good heroines. Jessica was really the perfect match for Cole, loving and in need of his care. The baby, Caleb, was also very adorable throughout the book. Grace was the exact opposite of Daniel Ryan's first wife, which proved to be a challenge to the Marshall to figure her out. While I enjoyed the chemistry with Grace and Daniel, I was a little disappointed that Cole did not have a story all to his own. I thought his character deserved more.Overall "COMES THE SPRING" is a good end to the series. I would recommend it to anyone who has followed the Claybournes since "FOR THE ROSES." Mama Rose's speech at the end did not bother me, as it did some reviewers, because we really don't hear a lot from her, but we know she has been behind the meddling. Definitely read this book, it's worth the time.

Her books are awsome! She is one of the top romance writter in my book I have read 17 of Julie Garwood's novels and she astounds me every time I read a new one. I suggest if you want to read this book start with the book "For the Roses" then go onto read "One Pink Rose", "One white Rose", and "One Red Rose" and then read "Come the Spring" These books are all about the Claybourne family and how they strived to survive raising an abandoned baby that they found in New York and turning her into a lady. After their little Mary Rose is grown up and Married to a highland Lawyer named Harrison each brother is tempted by women into settling down will the brothers run or face the destiny that MAMA Rose tricks them into. I am so happy that they decided to give Cole a bigger book about his story. He is my favorite out of the Clayborne brothers so I thought that he deserved a longer story. Cole is lead on an exciting adventure by a US Marshall so that he can get the gold compass back that he took from MAMA Rose at a train station hoping that Cole would try to get it back. Cole doesnt understand the US Marshals intentions until its too late. I love this story it a gotta read by any Julie fan.

The plot of this book got us off to a good start. After the first few pages, I was looking forward to a good read, my first Garwood book.As I progressed into the text, however, the characters never really developed. Worse, the emotions, behaviors, and particularly the dialogue between the characters seemed stiff, and didn't make sense to me.I'm not a reader of this genre who needs complete reality. Lets face it, we want to be entertained. If we want reality, there are plenty of great non-fiction books. But the key for me at least, is well crafted, creative and realistic dialogue through which the reader can relate to the characters. Nora Roberts is superb at this. Even Susan Phillips with her wacky, contrived situations, delivers a good read because her characters have personality.I have to admit, I couldn't finish the book. My rule is, after saying "Oh, for Pete's sake!", to myself five times, I give up. Oh well. Reading these reviews makes one thing clear. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For each one of me, there are many more who loved the book. As it should be.

After reading some of the reviews here in Amazon about this book, I was a bit hesistant in starting it. However, I felt obligated as it is part of the series. Afterall, I started the book, For the Roses, which is the first novel of the Clayborne series & which was also one of my favorite J.G. books. I read it with open mind. I actually didn't even expect much out of this book because of the reviews. I guess you can say I didn't want to be disappointed. In the end, the book wasn't too bad. Perhaps because I was prepared for it? Though I must admit, I had to skip some parts to get to the point. I had to "read-through" some pages as I find some scenes dragging. Mind you, the action twist was interesting. The suspense and the excitement of finding out who the true witness is and the three beautiful female leads, which was all uniquely described. I just wished this book was more of Cole and the Clayborne family since this is what the series started out to be. I also prefer ROMANTIC & LOVE scenes. I find this book more of an action scenes - robbery, murder, crime scenes. It's just not for me. But... like i said, it wasn't too bad. It's still entertaining. I finished the book so that is an indication that it wasn't dreadfully boring. If you started "For the Roses", then you must go through with the whole program. No regrets!